Download the Top 25 Interactive Agencies of 2008 (PDF, 180K)

Swiping a move from the TV playbook, Microsoft Advertising's Massive Inc. hosted the first-ever Gaming Upfront in December. Publishers including Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and THQ previewed their 2009 titles.

Disney's latest lovable creation has gone mobile, and should AvatarLabs' executive creative director, Rex Cook, be believed, there just ain't no turning back now. "It certainly has rocked my world," Cook says, apparently without a hint of irony, of his agency's newest creation, a 3-D iPhone game promoting Disney's animated film Bolt.

Since you're already being tracked by an omnipresent GPS system thanks to that chip in your iPhone, a little location-based advertising technology shouldn't much bother you. At least that's what interactive media company 1020 Placecast and real estate Web site trulia.com hope in their new endeavor to run targeted ads specific to where a visitor searches for a new abode.

Spam comes in many varieties, from the "Gone Are The Days When You Can't Perform" flavor to the "I used to want this newsletter but now I don't anymore" flavor. [We know a little something about this one. - Ed.] For several decades, the Direct Marketing Association maintained a Preference Service for consumers who wanted to stop receiving direct mail, telemarketing calls and, more recently, email (trending toward the latter sort of spam). Problem was, each list was an all-or-nothing proposition - you either opted out of everything or nothing.

Anime Networks and Gong have teamed up with Rhythm New Media to deliver animated videos to iPhones. The application vSNAX is offered as freeware for iPhones and iPod Touches. Each clip plays for 3-5 minutes, with content updated throughout the day. The app boasts more than 25 premium media partners such as AccuWeather, Discovery, Style.com and Fuse. It now has the unbearably cute capability to air shorts from the likes of Poo Boy, Azumanga Daioh, and Mythical Detective Loki.

At last, a truly encouraging sign that good journalism will flourish on the Web: Entries for the Pulitzer Prize will now be accepted from news organizations that publish solely online. The other criteria remain the same, which is good news for online journalism's standards: The entry must come from a publication primarily devoted to news and original reporting, a requirement at the heart of the prize since its establishment in 1917. The entry also must reflect the values of good journalism, such as honesty, accuracy and fairness. "[We're] …

In a recent Duke University study, rhesus monkeys were given a choice between enjoying their favorite drink (cherry-flavored Juicy Juice) or the opportunity to look at images of the dominant "celebrity" monkey of their pack.

Here's a little something you can use to break that awkward elevator silence with a coworker: Someone who possesses high self-esteem is 48 percent more likely to purchase premium coffee. Here's another: If you consider yourself open and curious, you're 153 percent more likely to always buy organic. While OMMA doesn't profess to understand such connections, the psychographic specialists at Mindset Media certainly do.

Who's watching what? That's been the question for advertisers since the dawn of, well, visual advertising. Nielsen tries to answer that question for television and now the brass ring is to figure it out for online video. That's where Quantcast comes in.